Word: macao
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Last week, as the Red armies of China swept unopposed across the Pearl River Delta, chasing ragged anti-Communist forces toward the Macao line, Oliveira realized he must behave with greater circumspection than any governor before him. The gunfire of China's war was audible in the Portuguese colony. Through Porta do Cêrco, the massive, yellow brick border gate, poured panicky peasants and deserting Nationalist soldiers, clamoring for haven from the advancing Reds. Black sentries from Mozambique allowed them to pass, first stripping the deserters of weapons. By week's end, over Pak-sha-leang...
...Time for Questions. A unique blend of Mediterranean and Oriental cultures, Macao is the Far East's oldest European colony. It is smaller than Manhattan, and its population (300,000), mostly Chinese, is less than Newark's. Four centuries ago, it became Europe's first port in China. In the 19th Century it was eclipsed by Hong Kong, which is four hours southeast by steamship. It fell into a somnolent decadence, lived shabbily on gambling and other shady practices, until even in the Portuguese homeland it became known as the shameful "city of sin and opium...
...Were Macao's days now numbered? Would the Chinese Reds seize it? Back in Lisbon, Premier Salazar said: "It remains to be seen whether reason will be able to avoid violence and whether the path of respect, of rights and of conciliation of interests can be found." More than a month ago, Lisbon sent reinforcements to Governor Oliveira's garrison...
...peak strength of 5,000 men, Macao's defenders crowd the little colony so that it appears armed to the teeth. But, as one high officer observed: "It's just a face-saving army. We don't have enough men to stop anything at the border, and too many for the simple job of keeping order in the city...
Whistling in the Dark? Unlike the British in Hong Kong, the Portuguese say they have little to fear from agitation inside the colony. For years there has been a small Communist cell in Macao, perhaps 200 intellectuals, mostly doctors, lawyers and teachers. "We have them spotted," said a Portuguese police official. "They loathe to mix with the lower classes, so we don't have to worry too much about them." On China's "Double Tenth" only six Communist flags flew in Macao, despite the fact that the colony has one factory openly manufacturing the flags for export...